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Calling it quits

I know, it’s very difficult to just drop something that you’ve been working on for an extremely long time.

For those of us who get deeply involved with the process, it can be almost impossible to do such a blasphemous thing as this; why would you just drop something that you’ve become intimate with in this way? It almost hurts.

I’m here to say that it must be done

I know, it doesn’t feel good to drop something that you’ve been working on for months.

When we do this, the FOMO(fear of missing out) kicks in and it feels like we are literally losing/missing out on something.

Speaking for myself, I always believe that I’m being disloyal and that, if I quit, a lifetime of laziness isn’t too far behind.

What I’ve realized is that the time that we put into the activity doesn’t matter; what matters are the results that we see during that time (THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO ALL THINGS)

Sunk costs and things of that nature

A sunk cost is one that has already occurred and shouldn’t be considered in future decision making.

Time is a sunk cost believe it or not. (I write about this more in depth in the book that will be coming out)

The time that we put into any one thing doesn’t matter, especially if the result of the use of that time is absolutely nothing.

If you haven’t gotten anything from doing something, it’s about time that that activity ceases to exist.

How does this tie into “calling it quits”

The best way for me to explain this to you is probably via analogy(I do love those)

*This isn’t really an analogy. I just love to use the word.

Do you guys remember the photo of the 2 men who were underground building tunnels at the same time? One man ended up quitting, while the other kept going and found diamonds and other precious jewelry in the ground.

In that example, I believe that I resonate with both (it really depends on what I’m doing, the alternatives, and a few other things).

If there are various different things that one can do and a strategy that has been tweaked and tweaked consistently over a period of months, it makes sense to quit.

Now, let’s say that the man who was seeking for diamonds had various other things that he could’ve been doing that had the possibility to give him the same type of results as selling the diamonds would’ve yielded him. Does it not make sense for him to quit and go do those other things. The time that he’s spending still looking for those diamonds is the time that is being taken away from doing other things.

I know that it feels like you’re quitting

Because it wasn’t yielding the best results and, much like that analogy up there, there are various other things that I could’ve been doing besides it.

Even with the knowledge that I have various other things that I could be doing, it still felt like I was quitting. How did I get over that feeling? By looking at the fact that it makes sense to stop doing that.

I understand that it is time to try another strategy and since I have a few other ones that work it makes sense to do so.

Conclusion

Remember, there’s such a thing as a sunk cost and it shouldn’t be present in any of our decisions. It may feel like you’re quitting but, the thing to keep in mind is this, you’re not. You’re doing something else that it simply makes sense to go out and do.

*That isn’t to say that you should simply quit everything because some things take longer to kick in than others.